


a parisian sunset

by babybel



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Post-Episode: s02e05-06 Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, because they have a Lot to talk about, can i get some love and respect for mickey? can i PLEASE get some love and respect for mickey??, honestly no this is just the guys talking stuff out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 09:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19999744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babybel/pseuds/babybel
Summary: Even after a month of working with him, Mickey still felt nervous around Jake. He couldn’t quite read him; he could never say with surety where he stood. And, god, he had big shoes to fill.





	a parisian sunset

**Author's Note:**

> i got to age of steel in my rewatch and then couldn't sleep until i wrote this shkdfjd

A year ago, Mickey could never have pictured watching the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower. Now, he saw it every day. After a month in Paris, he and Jake had finally - finally - locked down the cyber factory there completely. Not only were there no more cybers being converted, but the converters themselves were all totally disabled, all the cybermen had been rounded up and shut inside the factory, and their emotional inhibitor chips had been broken. They’d never hurt another person, never again. 

Jake and Mickey sat on top of the van, steeped in the orange light of the setting sun. They were quiet. Not uncomfortably so, but they were both exhausted after a long day of placing, checking, and double checking locks on every door and window in the factory. That and the fact that, even after a month of working with him, Mickey still felt nervous around Jake. He couldn’t quite read him; he could never say with surety where he stood. And, god, he had big shoes to fill. 

“How does it feel?” Jake finally asked. “Your first cyber factory.” 

“Isn’t it your first too?” Mickey ventured, hoping Jake could tell he was just joking around. Although, really, he didn’t think Jake had any more under his belt. 

Jake snorted. “No, I’ve had- I’ve been doing this for years. Maybe not whole factories, and maybe not… maybe not like this, but…” He laughed. “Yeah, it is my first. Yeah.” 

“So how’s it feel?” Mickey asked, turning it back on him. 

“Great. Top of the world.” Jake pulled his thermos out of his bag. In the middle of winter, with just a van and just the two of them, it really was the only source of warmth. It usually held some kind of tea - spiked, more often than not - or cider. He unscrewed the cap, which also functioned as the mug, and filled it up. He looked down at it, swirled the liquid around in the cup, and passed it to Mickey. “Cheers.” 

Mickey didn’t know what Jake wanted him to do. Logically, it was a drink for him. He should drink it. But there was only one cup, and Jake had been very hesitant to share anything with him insofar. Did Jake want to share it? “For me?” he asked. 

Jake laughed. “Yes, man. You look cold.”

“Oh.” Mickey took a drink. It was cider and bourbon. It burned his tongue, but after freezing his ass off all day he appreciated it. “That’s good.” 

“Yeah.” Jake tucked his hands into the pockets of his coat and looked out over Paris. “City of light. That’s what they call it, you know. We just saved the city of light, mate.”

“No, it’s the city of love,” Mickey corrected. “City of love. Paris. Everybody knows that.” 

Jake looked over at him for a second, then shook his head. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter.”

Mickey stared at the sunset, wondering what he did wrong. After a moment, he added, “Right. Whatever it is, we saved it.” 

Jake sniffed, his breath hanging as mist in front of him in the freezing air. “Yeah. We did.” 

Mickey didn’t necessarily want to bring Ricky up but he felt like he had to. Jake might be mad if he didn’t, and plus, it felt right. So he said, “I’m sorry he’s not here to see it.” 

“S’fine.” Jake shook his head. “Shit happens. I know that. Not our fault.” 

“I just… I don’t know. Feels like I shouldn’t be here, right? Like I don’t deserve to be here.” He took another sip of cider. 

“You saved everyone’s asses with that airship back in London,” Jake said. “You were the one who put in the code, remember?”

“Yeah, but-”

“You deserve to be here just as much as me. Probably more.” Jake rubbed his hands together and blew on them, trying to generate some warmth. 

Mickey didn’t know what to say. It was the first time Jake had honestly and directly told him he’d done well without attributing the success to something else. He drank the rest of his cider and passed the mug back to Jake. “Here, you have some. It’s bloody freezing.” 

Jake nodded, and poured himself a drink.

“So where are we going next?” Mickey asked, looking out over the Paris horizon. “I mean, there’s got to be billions more factories out there.” 

“Yeah.” Jake ran a hand under his nose. “Yeah, I don’t know. You sure you want to keep doing this?”

“Someone’s got to,” Mickey replied, wondering what Jake was getting at. When he wasn’t painfully honest, he was roundabout and very tricky to read, and right now could be one of those times. “They’re not going to shut themselves down. We need to keep spreading the code.” 

“We could give it to someone else,” Jake muttered. 

“What’s the matter with you?” Mickey demanded. “Is it me? Is it because I look like him?”

Jake shook his head. “Mickey, come on-”

“No, I get it,” Mickey continued. “I wouldn’t want to live with someone who looks exactly like my-”

“Mickey, it’s not-”

“It’s fine. Really. Fine.” 

“The problem isn’t that you look like him,” Jake rushed, and he was almost yelling. “The problem is that I like you even though you’re not him.” 

“What?” Mickey stared at him. 

“Yeah, no. Forget it.” Jake pressed his hands to his face, shaking his head. 

Mickey looked anywhere but Jake and tapped a nervous drum rhythm out on his thighs so he didn’t have to think. “Right,” he said, after a minute. There was so much else to say, and he wasn’t going to say any of it. His heart was going a mile a minute, because the guy he’d liked from the moment he was able to get over Rose, the guy he’d really sort of been crushing on for a month, the one he’d never ever be able to be with, not ever, because this guy’s last man had looked exactly like him and he wasn’t that cruel, that guy had just said he liked him. And not because of Ricky. He added, “Wait- for real, though?” on impulse. He couldn’t stop himself.

“Yeah, for bloody real,” Jake said through his hands. “Sorry.” 

“No-” Mickey blurted out. “I mean, it’s… okay.”

Jake picked up his mug and downed the rest of his cider. “If you want to leave, I get it.” 

“And go from this to a normal life?” Mickey shook his head. “I couldn’t. I mean, I know there’s more cybers out there. Can’t stop till they’re all locked up.” 

“But I’m…” Jake usually articulated things so clearly. It was odd for him to stop mid sentence. 

“Right, that’s the other half of it,” Mickey continued, palms tingling with nerves. “I don’t want to leave you, yeah? Not ever. You’re, like, the bravest guy I’ve ever met.”

“I’m not,” Jake muttered. 

“You are, though,” pressed Mickey. “Seriously, not kidding.” 

“So what do we do now? What’s next?” Jake asked, handing the thermos cup back to Mickey. And although it could have been a geographic question of which factory to lock up next, it didn’t feel that way. 

“There’s a whole world of cyber factories out there,” Mickey said, and he was nervous. Really, really nervous. “And we’ve got a code, and a van. Let’s save the world together.” 

Jake laughed shortly, shaking his head again. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, babe, you and me.” Mickey felt his heart hammering in his chest. “Cheers.” 

Jake held out a fist, and Mickey tapped the cup against it, and Jake laughed more. 

“And- me looking like him,” Mickey added quietly. “That’s okay?”

“I loved him because he was him,” Jake said. “I-” He took a breath. “I love you because you’re not him, got it?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got it. Yeah.” Mickey was floundering, but he couldn’t help it. He felt like a broken record. He felt beloved, and it was so foreign he didn’t know what to do. 

“Shut up,” Jake muttered, giving him a push. He’d gone red.

Mickey pushed him back, and then, on impulse, grabbed him and pulled him close to press a kiss to his head. 

Jake went even more red, and said, “We’re not killing any cybers sitting here. Let’s get a shift on.” 

“Right.” Mickey drank what was in the mug and set it down on top of the van before jumping down and reaching a hand up to help Jake. 

After screwing the mug back onto the thermos and sticking it back in his bag, Jake took Mickey’s hand and jumped down as well. “You driving?”

“Sure.” Mickey gave Jake a kiss on the cheek before walking around to the driver’s side and getting in. 

Jake joined him in the van. “You’re going to be like that, huh?”

“If you want me to.” Mickey put the van in gear. 

“Course I do, you daft bastard.” 

Mickey grinned. “Then yeah. You’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

“Good. I never want to.” 

Mickey nodded, and a part of him - most of him - still couldn’t believe it. “Where to?”

“Spain’s probably lovely right now,” Jake posed. “Warm, on the water, nice sunsets…”

“Loads of cybers,” Mickey added. 

Jake smiled a big, fierce smile. “Let’s go.” 

Mickey nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> listen mickey deserVES LOVE OK
> 
> find me on tumblr @lesbiandonnanoble !


End file.
